Saturday, 4 January 2014

Our days, too, can be encumbered with a thousand irritations, worries, regrets for what has happened,

and fears for what may occur.

Filled with trivial duties, unexpected memories

and thoughts about what we have to do,

they become a battleground strewn with

the debris of our thoughts and intuitions.

To escape this exhaustion, the thing to do is

to sit, wait and be still.

Fidelity to the moment is a deliberate,

focussed attention on the here and now -

wherever and whatever it is.

Forget the future (you cannot live there);

ignore the past (it is over);

concentrate on the only reality,

the one in whose presence you are now privileged to exist.

What is to be known is here.

All that exists is now,

in all its mysterious presence.Timeless Simplicity by John Lane.Also mentioned in the book,and I was reminded of this by a comment that being in the present while cleaning the bath would be hard to cope with,was Stanley Spencer's experience of sublime happiness whilecarrying out menial tasks during the war.Now the exhibitionStanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War,sixteen large scale canvas panelsfrom the Sandham Memorial Chapelhas come to London's Somerset House.